Poem Analysis

Students will be expected to
English Language Arts
•	GCO 7:	respond critically to a range of texts, applying their understanding of language, form and genre.
•	7.3 develop an ability to respond critically to various texts in a variety of ways such as identifying, describing, and discussing the form, structure, and content of texts and how they might contribute to meaning construction and understanding
•	GCO 8:	use writing and other ways of representing to explore, clarify, and reflect on their thoughts, feelings, experiences, and learnings; and to use their imagination.
Integration of Information and Communication Technology
•	PTS 9.1 use software to brainstorm, develop a thought web, outline, and map ideas under study with independence
 
Construct a concept web that analyzes the poem.

1. Open the Inspiration document entitled Poem_analysis_concept_web.ins .  Complete the web by filling in the following categories for the poem that you are studying.  You will be evaluated according to the attached rubric.  Make sure that your concept web is organized, easy to read and that it includes supporting information as requested in the bullets below.

•	Title: Think about the title before reading the poem.  Predict what the poem may be about. 

•	Important words & phrases: Choose 5 or more important nouns, verbs, phrases, and clauses in separate boxes. How do these words and phrases help you interpret the poem?

•	Paraphrase and interpretation: Put the major ideas of the poem in your own words.  What is the poem about?

•	Devices: Examine the poem  for poetic devices, focusing on how such devices contribute to the meaning, the effect, or both, of the poem. (What is important is not that you can identify poetic devices so much as that you can explain how the devices enhance meaning and effect.).  Identify 6 devices (give examples from the poem) that are used and explain the effect that they have on the poem. 

•	Speaker: Who is the speaker or narrator of the poem?  Identify key phrases from the poem that help you to know who the narrator or speaker is.

•	Theme:  Identify the main idea(s) the poet or narrator is conveying in the poem.  Supply supporting examples and evidence from the poem.
Poem Analysis : Concept Web

Teacher Name:                                                                                           Date:                                                    
Student Name: ________________________________________ 

CATEGORY	4	3	2	1	
Concept web 	Web is well-designed and easy to interpret.  Student has included all necessary information	Concept web is missing some elements, and does not include some necessary information	Concept web is unclear and difficult to interpret or is incomplete	Concept web is poorly planned and incomplete	
Title	Student makes good use of semantic and syntactic cues within the title to support a plausible interpretation of what it might mean	Student makes some use of semantic and syntactic cues within the title to support an interpretation of what it might mean	Student makes a limited attempt to guess the meaning of the title based on the limited use of semantic and syntactic cues	Student makes no attempt to interpret or guess the title’s meaning	
Paraphrase 	Student accurately describes the literal meaning of the poem and includes all important details	Student accurately describes the literal meaning of the poem but misses some important details	Student doesn’t describe the literal meaning of the poem but misses many important details 	Summary of poem is completely lacking in details or entirely missing from concept web	
Important Words and Phrases	Student identifies important number of words and phrases and explains correctly their significance to the poem and its interpretation	Student identifies some of the   important words and phrases and sometimes explains correctly their significance to the poem and its interpretation	Student identifies few important words and phrases and incorrectly explains their significance to the poem and its interpretation	Student has not identified any words and phrases 	
Devices 	Student correctly identifies poetic devices, supplies examples from the poem and analyses the effect or function of each device	Student correctly identifies some poetic devices, supplies some examples from the poem but is less successful in analysing the effect or function of each device
	Student does not correctly identify most devices and/or does not explain the effect or function of devices
	Student identified no examples of devices in the poem.	
Theme and interpretation 	Forms a reasonable hypothesis about the symbolic or metaphorical meaning and is able to support this with evidence from the poem. 	Student forms a hypothesis about the symbolic or metaphorical meaning that is not necessarily supported by evidence from the poem. 	Student forms an incorrect hypothesis about the symbolic or metaphorical meaning but doesn’t support it with any  evidence from the poem.	Student makes no attempt to interpret the meaning of the work. 	
Identify Speaker 	Student correctly identifies the speaker in the poem and supplies supporting evidence from the poem	Student correctly identifies speaker in poem, but supporting evidence or phrases is weak	Student identifies speaker but doesn’t offer supporting evidence	Student makes no attempt to identify speaker	

Concept Web Template